Indian businessman and protesting monk face repercussions

February 05, 2014 00:00
By The Nation

A senior Indian businessman who has participated in anti-government rallies will be deported for defying the state of emergency, a spokeswoman for the Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) said yesterday.

The centre has already ordered the Immigration Department and police to commence procedures to deport Satish Sehgal, who is chairman of the Thai-Indian Business Association, the spokeswoman Pol Lt Colonel Anchulee Theerawongpaisan said.

Sathit meanwhile said he halted all political activities after the government invoked the emergency decree.

Meanwhile, protest leader Phra Buddha Issara, abbot of Wat Or Noi in Nakhon Pathom, has allegedly committed ecclesiastical and criminal offences and could be immediately defrocked, National Office of Buddhism director Nopparat Benchawattananant said yesterday.

The Criminal Court will decide at 1.30pm tomorrow whether to issue an arrest warrant for the monk.

Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said the monk would be arrested once the Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him.

The Department of Special Investigation has issued a summons for the abbot to face charges of insurrection.

Nopparat said any monk committing criminal offences could be defrocked if not released on bail.